Racing
League
Rugby
Cricket
Golf
Olympics
Football
Netball
Motorsport
Combat Sports
Basketball
Other Sports
Sport Nation
Full Noise by SN
The Live Sport Bible is here!Never Look Back makes winning start to jumps season
Joshua Smith, LOVERACING.NZ News Desk • May 10th, 2026 2:46 pm
Never Look Back winning at Wanganui | Photo: Jane Davidson (Race Images)
Never Look Back made another winning start to the jumps season when taking out the Wanganui Insurance Brokers Open Hurdle (3000m) at Wanganui on Sunday.
The seven-year-old son of Shocking was victorious at the exact same meeting last year where he won his maiden hurdle before going on to win the Hawke’s Bay Hurdles (3000m) two months later in the hands of jockey Emily Farr.
Farr was back in the saddle on Sunday, and she was confident of a bold showing from the Gail Temperton-trained gelding on the Soft7 rated track.
She kept Never Look Back out of trouble at the back of the pack where the pair stalked their rivals for most of the journey before asking him to improve down the back straight for the final time to get more handy to pacemakers Red Ned and Invisible Spirit.
Turning for home Never Look Back drew level with the leading pair before bounding over the final two hurdles to capture the lead and run away to a six-length victory over Red Ned, with a further one length back to So Call Me in third.
Lumbered with 69.5kg, the weight was Temperton’s only concern heading into the race, but Never Look Back proved she had nothing to worry about, and she was full of praise for Farr’s ride.
“Emily knew how she was going to ride him, I had nothing to do with the riding apart from screaming at the end,” Temperton quipped.
“She knew we carried a big weight compared to the others and it’s the beginning of the season so is he fit enough to carry a big weight as well? She rode him perfectly.”
Farr was rapt to take out the first jumps race of the year and she said she was confident on the better track but holds fears for her charge as they head into winter where he will be met by unfavourable heavy tracks.
“The way he won the Hawke’s Bay (Hurdle) on a half decent track (I was confident he would go well today),” Farr said.
“He has got plenty of speed, so to just sit there and wait, get him to breathe and jump well and attack when I wanted to, he just rolled in and put them away.
“The only problem we had last year was that tracks became very deep very fast, and he doesn’t cop the heavy Heavy10s, so when it is a track like this it is great.”
Bred and raced by Temperton in partnership with her partner Stanley Alexander and Christopher Grace, Never Look Back is by Shocking and out of winning Johar mare Pirinitete, making him a half-brother to stakes winner Tamahine.
Never Look Back showed plenty of ability on the flat, winning four of his 31 starts and placed in the Gr.3 Manawatu Cup (2300m) and Listed Marton Cup (2200m), before transitioning to jumping where he has now won three of his seven starts over hurdles.
